Mattel made a mistake that hasn’t been so popular. This weekend, social media users shared images of Wicked dolls they bought to celebrate the premiere of the Broadway-musical-turned-movie that showed a website listed on the box directed to an adult entertainment site for users over the age of 18.
The official Mattel Wicked dolls link to a porn site on the box 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/iW4mNVAlPE
— just2good (Sarah Genao) (@just2goodYT) November 9, 2024
The hit musical rendition of the prequel to the Wizard of Oz is set to open in theaters Nov. 22, and retailers have taken advantage of its mass popularity.
Similar to the months leading up to the Barbie movie, the branding and marketing push for the Wicked movie has been massive. Some of the biggest brand collaborations have been a huge line of products at Target, Forever 21, Crocs, Gap, and Claire’s, all appealing to a millennial demographic.
But the fantastical story also appeals to the youngest of generations, to which Mattel decided to market through a line of fashion dolls of Wicked characters Glinda, Elphaba, Nessarose, Madame Morrible, Fiyero, and more.
Mattel, though, realized something bad had happened with its packaging this weekend as the link listed on the back of the doll box directs to an adult website instead of WickedMovie.com.
#Mattel dolls – insane error on the #Wicked boxes. Another excellent crisis communication case. Would really like to know what they’re going to do about this. https://t.co/vhshUrT22a
— Louise Schiavone (@LouiseSchiavone) November 10, 2024
The toy manufacturer has since apologized for the mistake.
“We deeply regret this unfortunate error and are taking immediate action to remedy this,” a Mattel spokesperson told Fortune in a statement. “Parents are advised that the misprinted, incorrect website is not appropriate for children.”
When asked what the company was doing to remedy the situation and how it happened in the first place, Mattel declined to comment.
“Consumers who already have the product are advised to discard the product packaging or obscure the link and may contact Mattel Customer Service for further information,” the Mattel spokesperson said in the statement.
Links to purchase the dolls on websites, including Target’s, have stopped working. Mattel declined to confirm whether a recall would happen.
all the dolls on the target website for wicked aren’t working, i fear a recall is happening… https://t.co/KbYVWEC3zb pic.twitter.com/ItVrACPqxv
— samuel 🫧💗 (@s2mu5l) November 10, 2024
The marketing snafu could dampen buzz for what’s expected to be a blockbuster film, which stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. Grande plays the good witch named Glinda, and Erivo plays the bad witch Elphaba in the story that plays out before Dorothy Gale ever ended up in the magical land of Oz.
Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth famously—and originally—played these characters on Broadway when the musical premiered two decades ago. It’s the fourth-longest running musical, and has since been seen by more than 65 million people with more than $5 billion in global sales, according to Variety.
Some projections suggest the movie could join the billion-dollar box office club, like the “Barbie” movie, another wildly wickedly popular nostalgic film released last year that made nearly $1.5 billion at the box office.
Is Mattel’s reputation hurt for good?
While Mattel has already acknowledged the error and apologized, many social media users have criticized the toy maker, alleging the mistake is damaging to children. Plus, many have questioned how such a big blunder could’ve happened at a company so large. (Mattel has a near $7 billion market cap and about 33,000 employees.)
“It’s surprising, and quite frankly shocking, that such an error slipped through what should have been a multi-layered review process,” Vijay Lalwani, marketing and public relations consultant and founder of The Koki Group PR, told Fortune. “For a company of Mattel’s size, marketing and promotional materials typically require reviews and approvals from multiple internal teams, all partners, and legal.”
Katya Varbanova, CEO of crisis communications and branding firm Viral Marketing Stars, told Fortune a problem like this typically comes down to quality control and quality assurance, like failing to proofread before going to mass print or production.
Although many teams—including branding, design, marketing, production, and finance—are usually involved in a project of this caliber, miscommunications and mistakes still happen, she said.
“Some companies will often hire external QA services to perform independent evaluation as well,” she said. “The goal is to minimize risk.”
But now it’s nearly impossible to put the genie back in the bottle, so to speak, so what should Mattel do to address the problem? Varbanova suggested pulling all of the products with the misprint, although it’ll be a “really expensive” task.
“But considering this is a product for children, they’re just going to have to absorb the losses,” she added. “On top of the public apology, they should openly share what they plan to do to fix the situation as well. Their commitment to child safety is going to speak volumes.”
Other crisis communications experts agree that Mattel’s apology and statement alone won’t be enough to completely remedy the situation in one short day.
“While Mattel is correct to have swiftly addressed the issue with an apology, this is merely the first step in what will likely be a longer journey to fully remedy the situation with its consumers, retail partners, and stakeholders,” Lalwani said.
